1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image editing apparatus and an image editing method for selecting an image to be inserted in an image insertion area in a template. The present invention also relates to a program for causing a computer to execute the image editing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As has been described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9(1997)-214868, a method has been proposed for generating a photo album by reading images from a film with a film scanner and by printing an image including a selected part of the images arranged in desired layout.
In addition, another method has also been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-182260 for generating a photo album by printing desired images as photographs and by inserting the photographs in photo mounting corners formed on photo album paper according to a size of the photographs and layout of the photo album.
Meanwhile, in order to generate a photo album on a wedding, a professional photographer sometimes photographs the bride and groom as well as attendants in front of a church as a venue for the wedding or in front of a monument during the wedding. Images obtained in this manner are used for generating a photo album, and the photo album tells a story that can be enjoyed later, since the album traces the behavior of the bride and groom on the day.
In order to generate a photo album, a professional photographer or an operator at a DPE store that provides a photo album generation service (hereinafter collectively referred to as an operator) stores images obtained by photography in an image server, and displays on display means such as a monitor of a workstation a catalog of the images stored in the image server and a template having an image insertion area used for photo album generation. The operator then selects one of the images to be inserted in the image insertion area from the catalog. At this time, the operator carries out image editing processing such as processing for changing image quality (blurring or sharpness enhancement, for example), processing for image reshaping (such as rotation, resizing, and trimming), and processing for image restoration (such as red-eye correction and scar removal) on the selected image so that the image inserted in the image insertion area can look attractive.
A photo album is generated by printing images edited in the above manner and pasting the images on photo album paper. A photo album can also be generated by printing composite images having a layout of the photo album generated from edited images inserted in image insertion areas of a template, as has been described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9(1997)-214868.
However, an image editing operation largely depends on skills of an operator. In the case of image processing especially, a size of an image after the processing and a trimming range changes from operator to operator. For this reason, a photo album generated by a skilled operator looks substantially attractive while a photo album generated by a poorly skilled operator does not look attractive although a charge for photo album generation may be the same for both cases. Furthermore, how well photo albums are generated may be different from day to day even if the same operator generates the photo albums.